This is a 1961 Ad for the model 514 rifle used
on Bonanza, check out that price!
Annoucement in Billboard
Here is the start of the cabinet restoration.
Since all the art on my cabinet has been painted over I
have no visible art to trace.
Unfortunately I'm not aware of any local collectors that has one of
these that I can trace the
art from.
I thought it would be possible to
carefully remove the top layers of paint to expose the
original art without much difficulty, that proved to be not
true,
I tried a number of suggested methods. None worked well on what appears
to be paint that is many years old. Using a heat gun I was able to get
at enough of the art to begin recreating the front side of the
cabinet art.
Here is the art re-created on the side door and a pix showing my
archeological "dig" to uncover the art.
I'm currently in contact with a fellow owner (Steve Moritz in Long
Beach Ca.)who has offered stencils he has created to repaint his
Bonanza game, when he is done
with them. This is a welcomed development given how much work
it is to get at the original art work.
The front pegboard cover which hides the volume controls ( gunshot,
explosion, background sounds), speakers and bell is also missing from
my game.
The choice of pegboard is an obvious one to allow the 2 speakers behind
the grill to be heard.
Here is a picture of the grill provided by another Bonanza owner ( Jim
Divoky) and an alternative version.
There appears to be 2 versions of
this grill. Possibly an early version and a later
version.
Here is the finished grill
Getting closer
I was able to "cleanup" most of the scenery art using color matched
paints but after starting to work on the "target score scenery", I
wasn't happy with how it was turning out. Though the blue and white
areas turned out ok, the rest proved to be a challenge to restore (see
above for art condition as received). It appears that some of the
damage may have come from excess oil on the chain used to move the
rider target. I decided to try my hand at re-creating the art
rather than continuing the restoration of the original. First the art
was scanned. Next a crude cleanup was done. Then it was broken into
layers. Each layer was then repaired and redrawn as necessary (thanks
to my daughter for her help here). Finally it was printed on a heavy
inkjet paper using a commercial sign printer. The result was better
than I had expected. I then sealed both sides of the paper using
a product called "super surface sealer". I then glued the art to
illustration
board using spray adhesive.
The final step is to add the black light sensitive paint to the areas
that need it.
The end product is actually better than the original. The original had
errors in overlapping the different layers, this does not.
The small flashlight as you may have guessed illuminates the
fluorescent paint which helps when trying to paint this.
The paint (Wildfire paints) for the sky was mixed to achieve a match
for the original, orange in normal light, yellow under black light.
Another positive of doing this, it got rid of the ugly staples and
holes caused by the method they used to attach this to the game.
I'm looking into an upgrade for the sound system,
using some modern circuit choices.
Of note: if you are reading this and have your own Bonanza, you may be
able to restore the original sound effects easily.
If you are fortunate enough to
have the muntz sound board in your game but no tape ,
you may be in luck if the player amp is good along with a working
reverb unit in the game and delay relays (good 250uf & 1500 uf
caps).
Just pop the cover off the player and manually engage the tape drive as
though a tape was installed, turning it on.
Close up the player. If the amp in the player works , volume controls
up, you should now have the effects working. No background music of
course.
There is some misinformation out there on how this system works, it's
very simple.
Short duration of reverb pickup on = gunshot, long duration of
pickup reverb on = mine explosion.
Those 250uf & 1500uf are what keeps the sound on.
Volumes for both altered by the volume controls behind the grill.
Obviously the gunshot should be lower and the explosion louder.
For those that do not have the
muntz board, you too can re-activate the original effects
by adding an external amp with magnetic cartridge preamp.
Here is a cheap one that shows
up on ebay and will work.

It's a radio shack SA-150 . You could use
the second channel for the back ground sounds with an 8track player and
available 8track tape, or now add the board below for
complete sound restoration.
Game Cabinet Sound Wiring Information
The connector on the board is setup like this. Unfortunately there
isn't a color code chart on the wires .
To get the correct orientation if you use a meter you should be
able to locate (
DE) about 14 volts ac or easier, the pickup coil
signal (
BG) is on a shielded cable.
This lettering represents looking down at the connector on the sound
board. So it's equal to looking at the back of the connector...if that
makes sense.
A B C D E
F G H I J
A=Ground (also Music / Background effects Out Gnd)
B=Reverb IN (Comes from reverb unit pickup coil-shielded cable)
C=Music / Background effects OUT (connected to output of Muntz)
out to game
D=AC (input to bridge rectifier for muntz 12volt power, on
sound board)
E=AC (to bridge on sound board)
F=Sound Effect (Gun shot / explosion) output to game ( not be used
on later games would be considered common on Muntz since both sounds
went through it)
G=Reverb IN (Comes from reverb unit pickup coil-shielded cable)
H=Sound Effect (Gun shot / explosion) output to game
I=12volt + power for tape deck
J=12volt+ power from bridge rectifier (on sound board)
The Reverb In (
BG) would go to the Magnetic phono input.on
an amp (one side ..say left)
The sound effect out (
HF) would go to speaker output of
the amp (one side ...say left)
For the Music / Background effects OUT (
AC) , connect to digital
source, tape player etc. (must auto repeat)
If the source for this is the right impedance / level it may be
possible to use the other preamp / amp channel for this.
ORIGINAL BONANZA TAPE SOUND
Don't forget the volume controls behind the front grill
You will be able to control how loud the gunshot is versus the
explosion. The difference in sound between them being how long the
sound stays on
from the vibrating spring on the reverb.
One last thing, if using an external amplifier / preamp most likely the
Ground (
A) will need to be connected to the chassis ground of
the
amp (reduce hum).
Also, the available schematic shows the reverb pickup coil
sharing one side with the speaker common, on my unit this is
not
true. If your
unit is wired that way,
attention will have to be paid to hooking up the inputs and outputs so
that the grounds match. Do this by checking that none of the pins
(BGHF) are connected together using an ohm meter. If they are,
those are the common ground wires.
New Update to Sound
Here is one working solution to update the sound system
This board has the background music recorded on it. It runs on 12 volts
and can auto start and loop play.
It's only major drawback is it's .5watt
output limitation. I have tested it and it works well. As
I write this I have
not tried running it with game's speaker along with the game running
(motor noise etc)
So the jury is out whether the output is sufficient to overcome the
games operating noise.
This board is normally sold for use by model railroad enthusiasts. I
had the background audio file custom loaded into it.
Effectively this tiny board replaces the 4track player along with
an additional amplifier for the sound effects.
I'm looking into a 12volt stereo amp one channel for the
background and on channel for the effects.
All of the above can be mounted on the sound system board and be
connected there including power.
Adding realistic sound effects to replace the reverb output will take a
bit more work and require additional module(s) and a circuit
change to allow for different sounds to
be used. Unlike the original sounds which are really one sound with
different time lengths.
A single additional module wired to respond to the control of the
reverb relay could substitute for that unit. This could provide more
realistic sounds for both
the explosion and gunshot.
The best solution would be 2 additional modules for the separate sounds.
Contact me for more info. on where to obtain this board.
(BTW the modules run about $35)
There are 3 available for purchase, a total of 5 that
I know of.
1. The Instruction
Manual
2. The Wiring Diagram/Schematic
3. The Catalog Supplement "X" with new
parts and units for Bonanza
4. The William's 1971-72 Parts Catalog
(covers all William's games from space pilot 11/68 to Cimarron
12/70 including prices!)
(according to the above catalog the replacement
screened glass for bonanza in 1971 was $24.00)
5. The Game Flyer
The first 3 are available from pbresource.com